In the application-test for the translation college (which I am to submit within a week) they gave us particularly insidious sentences to see if we could figure them out. In most of them the "catch" was a no-brainer, but a few sentences did manage to get the better of me. Here they are:

1. It may be used in the hardness testing of plastics with pratically no change. (I'm not sure I see the catch here)2. He took a car from the pool. ("pool" as in "storage", right?)3. She crossed the green. (what does it mean? is it an idiom? should I just translate it as it sounds?)4. The Federal Bank surprised Wall Street big time. (where's the catch here?)5. Empty vessels make the most sound. (I know it's an idiom, what does it mean? I didn't manage to google an answer for that).

"green" here refers to a green "space" a park or other public area of greenery. It's a rather English sort of English, I suspect, often used in conjunction with the word "village".

"The Federal Bank surprised Wall Street big time"My guess would be that the catch is the idiomatic nature of the phrase - "big time" simply meaning "a great deal" or "very much", with no literal connexion to time of any size.

"Empty vessels make the most sound." (I know it's an idiom, what does it mean?

People with nothing to say are the ones talking the loudest. Shakespeare's line "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" expresses a similar idea. . If you bang on an empty vessel, it will make a lot of noise precisely because it's empty. Likwise, a person bereft of meaningful contributions to a discussion will balther on endlessly, hoping to obscure the absence of quality by the excess of quantity.

The test may come in trying to figure out what to do with them during the translation. But here;s my take:

1. "It may be used" is passive voice, and I would recast as follows: ONe may use the product in . . ..

2. Look up steno pool. It is an idiom for a reserve group. A term you might use in translating is fleet instead of pool. A carpool is a different thing altogether: a group of people who commute together in a shared vehicle.

3. A green is a common or a park. See Boston Common.

4. I don't see a catch.

5. The louder someone is (partcularly in a meeting), the less there is in the person's brain.

this indicates that there is a quantity of autos available to the organization, from which individual members thereof can avail themselves for business of said organization -- like a motor pool in the military.

1) I'm not quite sure what do you mean, TheFallibleFiend, maybe I just like to believe (self-delude) I'm too smart to even see the catch here..

2) I was able to found a satisfying word for "pool" in the context. And yes, the direct translation of "pool" in Hebrew only means "swimming pool".

3) Ah, I did not even consider that! but it makes perfect sense. I actually intended to translate "green" as the colour. But I get it now, and there's a word that means "lawn, green, grassplot", which I'm glad to use instead.

In one of those insidious sentences they try to throw us off with "inflammable"... how lame is that eh? there are a total of 25; all sorts of slang and idioms, and sentences that looks the same but means different things... and even words that are problematic to translate to Hebrew... but I think (er, hope) I picked on every one of those skullduggeries...

I just hope the other people were dumb enough to fall for them, so I'll have a clear path for the internship. It's really unnerving not knowing who you're up against...

1) I'm with fallible fiend: the prepositional phrase "with practically no change" could mistakenly be thought to modify "in the hardness testing of plastics." Also, "in the hardness testing of plastic" is an awkward construction, and might be confusing. It would be better cast "in testing the hardness of plastic."

"She crossed the green" means she entered the church on St. Patrick's day.

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